The present invention relates to an apparatus for simulating the different paces of a horse and the aids to be applied for the purpose of controlling the horse.
This apparatus is intended to enable horse-riders and non-riders alike to analyze themselves and to become familiar with the different paces or gaits of a horse in order to make profitable use of the new horse-riding method known as the "balance method". This method is based on a knowledge of the mechanisms of locomotion as well as the innate reflexes of the horse, these reflexes being put to profitable use for applying "aids" or in other words assisting the horse, thus more readily developing the conditional reflexes required by the rider for teaching the horse to take up different postures, carry out changes of direction, and perform movements which are not natural or innate. With this objective, the rider must know the exact periods of time during which the horse's forefeet and hindfeet are each in contact with the ground in order that the rider's own weight applied through the saddle and stirrups may be intentionally utilized at any given moment as a function of the ground contact pressures which the rider desires either to increase or reduce. This is what is improperly referred-to in current jargon as "weight aids" although it is actually a matter of utilizing all or part of the rider's weight applied through his or her internal forces in order to produce a controlling action on the horse.
In order to apply this method in a suitable manner, riders should therefore be wholly acquainted with the sequence of ground contacts of the horse's hooves and of uplifts of each hoof according to its different paces or gaits. It is essential, however, for riders to understand the sequence of movements of the horse and the transitions between its different paces. Moreover, riders must necessarily train in order to apply a predetermined aid at the exact moment when this aid is effective. This presents an awkward problem by reason of the different reaction times of each individual rider and of each horse. In fact, reaction times are liable to vary in duration from a few hundredths to a few tenths of a second.
For the reason just given, the apparatus in accordance with the invention is so designed as to enable riders and non-riders alike to begin by making themselves familiar with the various movements of a horse and to follow a course of indoor training in order to carry out predetermined control actions by simulating the performance of such control actions or so-called "aids" during the movements of the horse.